At 50, George Orwell said, everyone has the face he deserves. Barry Diller had that face by the time he was 30 and a fast-tracker at ABC. His premature baldness and stark visage gave him the look of an Edsel with the top down. And he already possessed that icy stare that made him, according to one Hollywood wit, "the last person you'd want to spill a drink on at a cocktail party." These, and a great gut for pop culture, served him well as chairman of Paramount Pictures from 1974 to '84, when it produced golden-calf movies (Grease, Flashdance) and...
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